Hello Followers. Hope you’re ready for the weekend.
As many of you know, every year this here blog casts an official Pac-10/Pac-12 media ballot.
And so, with Media Day coming up this very next Tuesday, we take our annual plunge into the abyss. So, if you want to check out a set of predictions that are sure to make you laugh harder as the year goes on, then click on the old jumperoo….(read on)
++++
Followers, there are a few things that you can count on in this life.
The first is that the sun will come up tomorrow.
You can always count on that…
And with respect to this blog, well, you can pretty much bank on a of things happening as summer starts to give way to fall:
- Sean will tell me that CAL is going to be really good at football. I tell him he is crazy. And, at the end of the year, I’m typically right.
- I tell Sean that the Huskies are going to be terrible and Sean disagrees. And every so often during game week, Sean predicts that the Dawgs are going to beat someone who’s pretty darn good. Unfortunately, most of the time he’s dead spot ON.
So, this year, after looking at the schedules of ALL conference teams for several months, I’m bucking the trend a little. And, at the risk of landing my punch line way too early once again, a few words about these picks.
First and foremost, I think the Huskies are going to have a pretty down year. And while I’m more than prepared to eat crow like I do most years…
…I think they’re going to bite it this year because their schedule, frankly, just doesn’t shape up for them to have a successful season.
That said, because I am bucking trends this year—and because I am giving you all a year to forget that I ever said this—I will say this about the Muttlakes: The University of Washington will be at least co-champions of the Pac-12 North Division in 2013-2014. In other words, just like the 1997 Cougs turned a 5-6 campaign the year prior into a Rose Bowl birth, the Dawgs will soon have their day.
But. Not. This. Year.
Thank god for that….
++++
Followers, normally when we provide our Pac-12 Media Day ballot, we provide you with final won loss records for each team, including how we think they’ll fare in non-conference play. This year, we’re not doing that. The reason? Well, each time that I went through and picked all the conference games, I kept coming out with members of the South Division having records that are too horrible to actually put in print. That noted, there a few things to take away from that conclusion—things that I mentioned a few weeks back on our radio show. Namely, whenever you have a conference that has teams at the top with good records, the bottom gets really, really soggy.
And so it will be again this year, followers.
So let me be clear: IF the South Division is NOT filled with teams that have two or fewer league wins, then there are going to be a few teams in the North who are going to take it in the shorts.
Unfortunately, we figure to stand as one of those teams–assuming that the South winds up being better than advertised.
So, this year I simply give you the order of finish for each team in their respective Division. Then, I give you each team’s home-away conference split, followed by an opponent or two that I think will be key in determining that team’s conference standing. And we’ll follow-up on that a few weeks from now when camp starts up.
The Picks:
Pac-12 South Division
- USC (4-5, @Stan, CAL)
- Utah (4-5, CAL, @UW)
- UCLA (5-4, OSU, @WSU)
- Arizona (5-4, UW, CU)
- Colorado (5-4, UCLA, ASU)
- Arizona State (4-5, OSU, WSU)
Pac-12 North Division
- Oregon (4-5, @USC @CAL)
- California (5-4 @Utah, @WSU)
- Stanford (4-5, @UW, WSU)
- Washington State (5-4, @Oregon State, UCLA)
- Washington (4-5, @AZ @CAL)
- Oregon State (5-4, @AZ, WSU)
Pac-12 Championship: Oregon over USC in an LA rematch
Couple of quick hits. I have Oregon and USC both going to BCS games with Oregon slipping into the National Championship game after upsetting #1 USC in the Pac-12 Championship in LA. Utah will be heading to the Alamo with 9 or 10 wins and a top 15 ranking for the second most underrated coach in America.
CAL is my sleeper team of the year. The defense, though inexperienced on paper, is physical, fast, and highly under-rated. And while Maynard is nothing to write home about in some ways, their experience on the OL, their depth at Running Back, and the Deep Threat provided by Allen make me think that they are going to KILL teams over the top through play action. What’s more, CAL has the unique fortune of hosting all of the big boys in the North at home. Key match-ups for me are road contests at WSU and at Utah. Win both of those and CAL will be playing for the Division title when Oregon comes around in November.
And us? Well, I’ve gone back and forth on our Cougars. Certainly, there’s a lot to be learned about us during fall camp. But, as of this writing, I have us winning the first four games of the year as well as the last three. That’s 7-5 overall, 4-5 in league, just edging out Washington and Oregon State.
My sense is that Washington is going to find their way to bowl eligibility at 6-6 simply because Sark has shown himself to be one helluva motivator of teams that are down in the dumps. But in my mind, even that outcome rests on them finding a way to beat Stanford at the end of September. If they start 2-4, I think they’ll find themselves home for the Holidays, with the reason being that the North Division is going to be UP this year. WAY up.
So, there you have it, another Pac-12 Media Ballot in the books. Give us your takes in the comments section. And have a great, great weekend.
All for now. Go Cougs.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
